Sanji's Vs Luffy
by Freida5
Summary: Sanji faces his toughest challenge yet: cooking something that Luffy wouldn't eat!


The straw hats were all gathered around the dining room table. As always it was fairly noisy with all nine strawhats chatting, laughing, and chowing down on Sanji's fabulous food. Sanji himself turned from the stove carrying a huge covered pot "Alright, here's the main dish." He said, setting it down on the table with a thud. He opened the lid and the savory aroma of spices and meat wafted out "rice pilaf with chicken! Watch out, it has some spices in it- Luffy! Knock it off!" Sanji glared at his captain who was about to reach bare handed into the pot.

"Shmrry" Luffy said through a mouthful of garlic bread and salad.

"Geeze Luffy, learn some manners!" Sanji said disgusted. He grabbed a plate and a ladle and heaped some of the rice on it. "Here"

Luffy swallowed hard and grinned at her "ah, thanks Sanji!" and he began to wolf down the rice.

"Luffy I just told you about the spices! There might be a bay leaf or a cinnamon stick in there!" Sanji warned him.

"Eh?" Luffy looked up, a brown stick sticking out between his lips. He chewed furiously for a moment and swallowed the stick before looking up again "sorry, what did you say?"

All the other strawhats gaped at him "Luffy, you just ate a piece of wood." Sanji said slapping a hand to his face.

"Well you yelled at me when I talked with my mouth full last time!"

"I… you… never mind, just keep eating."

The rest of the meal was uneventful after that. But afterwards as Sanji was cleaning up he kept smiling to himself at his captains amazing stomach. Was there _anything_ Luffy didn't eat?

He wiped a dish absently, giving serious thought to his last half joking question. Was there something Luffy wouldn't eat? Sanji had made it clear that anything he put on the table his crew would finish, but he did make some concessions. Of course Chopper couldn't bring himself to eat venison, but there were other things as well .Nami was almost physically ill the first time he cooked eel as a main dish. The same thing happened for Ussop with pickled plums and Zoro with bananas. There were just some foods that people couldn't eat for some strange reason or another. But was there something Luffy couldn't stomach?

Before he realized what he was doing he had pulled several frying pans and pots out and was heating up the stove again. He grinned evilly and cracked his neck from side to side. It was time to experiment. He would make a dish that was indeed edible, but his captain wouldn't touch. It was a tall order but he was just the man for the job.

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About an hour after sun down Sanji stuck his head out the door. "Luffy, would you come in here? I got a snack for you."

"Food? Really? Wow Sanji, thanks!" Luffy raced into the kitchen and skidded to a halt as he sat himself at his usual seat at the head of the table "Alright, what did you make?"

Sanji held up a hand "now before you start I'm going to warn you. I was just experimenting with some ingredients so some of the dishes might taste weird-"

Luffy laughed and waved away his concern "Aw forget that, I can eat anything!"

_We'll see about that._ Sanji thought. He had prepared four dishes and he grabbed the first covered plate and set it before Luffy "O.K., the first dish is" he whipped of the cover "escargot!"

Four little cups sat on the plate, each one with a small lump of grey meat floating in a garlic and butter sauce. Sanji sat back, skeptical that this first dish would faze Luffy. Escargot was a very tasty dish, if a little chewy. What he was going for was more shock value than actual taste.

Luffy picked up a cup and downed the snail in one bite. "Hmm, this is good." he said chewing and swallowing "What's escargot though, some kind of fish?"

"What's escar- you just ate something without knowing what it was?"

"Well yeah. You cooked it so I know it's going to be good." Luffy said and downed another one.

Sanji was flattered by the compliment, but still bemused by his captain. "Escargot is French for snails." He said, waiting eagerly for his reaction.

Luffy grabbed the last two cups and ate both the snails at once "That's cool, I thought snails were gross." He said pushing the plate away.

That was one dish down, three more to go. "Here's the next one." He said as he brought over the next dish and uncovered it. A small pink meat patty lay there with a yellow egg yolk on top. "It's steak tartar."

Before Luffy could start however Sanji decided to explain the dish "Just so you know this is a mixture of raw beef with a raw egg on top. Just telling you in case you don't want to eat-"

The tartar was already in Luffy's mouth. Three chews later and it was safely in his stomach. "I didn't know you could eat raw meat like that." He said with a wide grin "does that mean I can eat the beef in the fridge for a midnight snack?"

Sanji rubbed a temple in exasperation "No Luffy, just no. Eating raw meat is a very bad idea unless a professional makes it. Besides you're not allowed to have midnight snacks after that incident."

"I still don't get what the big deal about it is..."

"You ate three weeks of food supplies in one night!"

Luffy was looking mulish so Sanji decided to let it slide. He had two more tries, and the next one was a doozy. He swept up the dish and uncovered it for Luffy "here it is, and this time it's pretty self explanatory. Chocolate covered crickets!"

On the plate were two long chocolate covered lumps that could have been mistaken for some kind of candy bar. Luffy poked one experimentally and picked it up, looking worried "Sanji…"

"Yes?" Sanji asked with a grin. Had he finally found the thing Luffy didn't want to eat?

"How the heck did you get crickets? We've been out at sea for like 2 days!"

Sanji sighed "I have my sources. Besides, sometimes I just get ingredients for the novelty. If you finish this dish you'll see what I mean."

Luffy still looked skeptical. Sanji held his breath as Luffy picked one of the crickets up and popped it in his mouth. He chewed for a moment, looking thoughtful. And Sanji sagged as he ate the second one with relish. "Man, this is great! You should make stuff like this more often." He said, picking up a stray crumb of chocolate and eating it.

_One more dish… then I'm out of ideas for now_ Sanji thought with a little trepidation. But this last dish was his ace in the hole. Even he would hesitate to eat it, and he had a moral code to eat any food presented to him. He knew that even Luffy would waver in the face of such a dish. He placed the final covered plate on the table and said seriously "O.K. Luffy, I'm telling you this now. If it's too gross you don't have to eat it."

"Like I said, I'll eat anything!"

Sanji dutifully removed the cover, revealing a single white egg. "Hmm? What's this?" Luffy asked poking it.

"Balut. It's a special kind of duck egg that's been boiled. Go ahead and peel it, you can eat whatever you find." Sanji said innocently.

Luffy began to peel it, but as more of the shell came away the more horrified his face became "Sanji, there's a baby duck in here!" he put it back on the plate hastily and a small unborn duck half flopped out.

Sanji shrugged "well it's a popular dish in some countries. The last island we stopped at had a large population of South Blue islanders; I think that's where it came from." Sanji ran a hand through his hair, feeling a little guilty "O.k. I'm sorry I sprung something like this on you Luffy. I shouldn't have-"

But he didn't get to finish his apology. Luffy's face was suddenly determined as he reached over, gently shook the duck fetus free of the shell, and jammed it in his mouth. A few second of concentration and he finally swallowed it. Luffy smacked his lips, looking slightly put off "umm… well it wasn't that bad. But it certainly wasn't good either." He said finally. "It had a lot of hard bits, like the beak and bones and stuff."

Sanji gaped at him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before shrugging "O.K. that was unexpected. Tell you what Luffy, since you were such a good guinea pig I'll take a request. What do you want to eat?"

"Meat!"

"Of course. One well-done steak coming right up!"

After Luffy had eaten his steak in record time he thanked Sanji for the food and sauntered out of the kitchen. Once again Sanji was left to ponder over a load of soapy dishes. So even the Balut had failed. It seems that Luffy could and would eat anything. But there had to be even stranger foods out there. He had heard tales of cheese that people intentionally infested with insects, or drinks made out of snake blood. He didn't have many more outlandish ingredients, but maybe he could find something in one of his cook books. As soon as he finished cleaning up he pulled out a book from his personal library and began to pour over it.

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"Sanji? Sanji!"

Sanji was startled awake, Ussop looking at him curiously. "You spent your entire night in the kitchen? What were you doing in here?"

Sanji looked around himself blearily. There were stacks of cookbooks and pieces of paper surrounding him as well as a few dirty tea cups. He picked up a piece of paper that had a list of recipes on it, rubbing his eye tiredly "Oh nothing, just searching for some new things to cook." He said mildly.

"Uh huh. Well I hope you found some good ones." Ussop said. "So what's for breakfast?"

Sanji groaned and laid his head on the table. He hadn't even thought about cooking this morning. "Look, I'm a little under the weather. How about some toast and grapefruit for breakfast? I'll make up for it with a big lunch."

Ussop smiled at him "Yeah that sounds fine. Oh, wait a sec!" he rummaged around in the fridge for a moment and pulled out a package "I got some of this at the last island. It's one of my favorites! How about I make some natto for breakfast?"

"Natto? Ew!"

They both turned to see Luffy in the doorway, tongue poking out and making a sick face "I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten foot pole! Natto is nasty."

Ussop acted wounded "Luffy, how can you say that? Natto is great! Not only is it tasty, it's good for you too!" he moved forward with the package of fermented soybeans "heeere, try some!"

Luffy edged away, looking slightly green "get that thing out of my face! It's making me sick just thinking about it!"

"No, natto loves you so you should love natto!" Ussop came closer with the box and Luffy bolted. They did a few laps around the kitchen table, Luffy hollering to get that stuff away from him and Ussop chasing him with the box.

On the last lap Luffy snagged a roll from the bread box and made it to the door. "Weirdo! Enjoy your nasty beans!" Luffy said, pulling the lower lid of his eye down and sticking his tongue out. With that he slammed the door shut.

"Oh man, that was hilarious!" Ussop said laughing hysterically "I never knew Luffy hated natto so much! I guess- Sanji?"

Sanji had his head in his hand, looking at the list of recipes he had found during the night. The top three recipes were pig's ears, bird nest soup, and boiled sheep head. "Of all the lousy things I could have cooked up, natto would have been pretty low on the list." He said.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Oh nothing." Sanji said getting to his feet smiling. "I just made a stupid bet with myself, but you won the jackpot. Enjoy your natto." Ussop gave him a strange look as Sanji, whistling, made his way to the deck to have a smoke and a private laugh at his own foolishness.


End file.
